Sunday Night May 1

Less than a day into a two-day voyage an Australian ship suddenly lists and takes on water at an alarming rate. One by one the 10 crew members were forced from their duties, others shaken awake tostruggle through gushing saltwater onto the deck and into a flimsy rubber life raft before the MV Blythe Star lifts its bow to the sky and sinks without a trace.

They’re relieved they made it, the worst is surely over and they expect rescuers will fish them out of their predicament within hours. Only nobody knows their ship has gone down, and little do the men of the MV Blythe Star know they’ve only just begun one of the most extraordinary against-the-odds struggles for survival in Australian maritime history. Yet, like the plight of the crew, very few Australians know about this incredible high seas drama. Until now. In a stunning, sweeping television first, Sunday Night brings this incredible story to life through the gripping recollection of the last man standing, Mick Doleman. Mick – until recently a senior figure in the Maritime Union of Australia – has been reluctant to recount the detail of his ordeal until now. Even his family has been unaware of the challenges and life-and-death incidents that swamped their days at sea and lost in remote wilderness.

Now, he’s the last survivor and Mick has resolved that he didn’t want to take his account to his grave. In honour of the men lost in this nightmare at sea and in the time since, he wants the nation to know of their bravery, humanity and their inspirational determination to survive and be reunited with family and friends.

Sunday Night’s Rahni Sadler tells the at times tragic but ultimately heroic and stirring story of the MV Blythe Star in The Last Survivor. And in a moving conclusion takes Mick and his family back to the remote and rugged landfall where he decided he and the remaining crew were not going to die.